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Toys

Goliath Games proves you don't have to have a completely original concept to introduce an interesting and playable toy. Sometimes, all you need to do is take something that's been around a while--and put a new spin on it.

Granted, it's not the first time someone has set out to renew interest in the basic toy that uses centripetal and centrifugal force (see, it's science!) to entertain children. There have been different takes through the years on the flying disc and the hula hoop.

Of course, this time we are talking about that most primal spinner, The Top!

No, not this classic supervillain from The Flash. The toy you spin and watch. Then spin again and watch again.

Retro games have been out on the market for some time now. You can find them in any store's toy aisle, with classic titles like Pac-Man, Asteroids, and others. The catch: they're almost all Plug-and-Play. Which is fine if you don't mind sitting within four feet of the screen.

Enter AtGames and their new line of Flashback Blast!

To illustrate what makes these games different, we ran one of the units through an experienced video game tester.

As kids, we loved new movies not just for the films themselves, but for the inevitable merchandising which would help us reenact some of the thrills at home. Whether through Happy Meals or coloring books, there were dozens of avenues that would help keep us entertained, while building significant profit and interest back in the original property. Often underestimated even to this day, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the most famous merchandising efforts, and the amount of profit and interest they have returned to the starting brand.

Rainbow Brite is one of those pop culture icons of nostalgia that was quite the big deal back in the day, a part of the zeitgeist of the times just as much as Atari arcade games and Rubik's cubes. Where Strawberry Shortcake relied on scents as the selling point, Rainbow Brite was (rather obviously) more color-oriented.

When I saw the Paulina Ganucheau cover, and read the advance promotional material, I hoped this would be a brilliant reboot of the character that would still retain the appeal to an all-ages audience. What I got on the inside was not what I expected, and yet still lives up to my hopes.

Mego was the king of action figures in the 70's. The formula was simple: an 8-inch action figure line with soft goods clothing and doll hair for characters who benefited from it. To maximize their reach, Mego didn't specialize in one franchise, they made toys for every brand they could: from Marvel to DC, Star Trek to Planet of the Apes, and Charlies Angels to CHIPS. If it was on a screen, odds are MEGO made a figure of it.

With an AQUAMAN movie soon to hit theaters, it makes perfect sense that Warner Brothers and LEGO would want to capitalize on the interest with an Aquaman LEGO adventure. AQUAMAN: RAGE OF ATLANTIS finds the sea king (voiced by DEE BRADLEY BAKER) giving up his crown after his half-brother Orm (TREVOR DEVALL) reveals the fine print of the Atlantean constitution declaring only a full-blooded Atlantean can hold the throne. This comes on the heels of Aquaman's humiliating defeat at the hands of Lobo (FRED TATASCIORE) at a dry lake bed known as Area 52, a military installation designed for the simplification of processing alien weaponry, now gone defunct because the simplification process proved overly complicated causing the entire operation to relocate to Rebirth, New Jersey.

So here's my childhood: Get up. Watch cartoons. Play. Go to school. Watch after school cartoons. Play. Go to bed, safe in the assurance that when I grew up, I woudln't have to work because we'd have jetpacks, flying cars, cooked food on demand, and robots.

Now that I've left 50 in the taillights, and ponder the weight the advent of microwaves and Uber Eats has put on me, I finally get one more step closer to the future that I was promised in comic books and LOST IN SPACE.

The robots are here!

Yes, they've been here for a while, I suppose. But for the most part, consumer-obtainable robots have been pretty much RC cars with special effects.

If Tim Burton were to remake THE YEAR WITHOUT A SANTA CLAUS as a dramatic modern tragedy, it might come close to the emotions felt across the country as we await word from toy-selling colossus TOYS "R" US that they will be shuttering their stores across the country.

Should expectations bear out, the 60+ year old company will be the latest brick-and-mortar chain to fall victim to online competition, as parents turn to sites like Walmart, Amazon, and eBay for their purchases. Even the suppliers of toys have become competitors against their customer, with companies like LEGO and Mattel offering direct sales through their websites.

In January, TRU CEO Dave Brandon stated on the company blog that the chain would "continue to operate stores in all major markets across the U.S. and around the world." Two months later, that statement seems to have been overly optimistic.

Saban Brands is making a big shift in its toy business and has decided to part ways with Bandai.

Bandai America has created the Power Rangers toys for 25 years, but Saban Brands announced today that it will not be renewing its partnership with Bandai as of April 2019. The official statement is included below.

It's September, which means the toy industry is in full court press for the dollars of parents who want to be sure they get their kids the hottest toys on the market.

This year one of those toys taking up the airwaves is RC Pocket Racers, a remote-control rechargeable car about the size of your average Hot Wheels or Matchbox car. All that sounds pretty cool, because it would be kind of fun to put such a vehicle on your original designed orange plastic tracks and send a car around it under its own power.

Collectible blind boxes have really gotten big in recent years. I am usually pretty reluctant to buy them, because I am specific about exactly what I want when it comes to collectibles. My wife is a huge Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, so I had bought her two TNG Blind Boxes...and they were both Deanna Troi. Not exactly getting my money's worth there.

It seems like a long time ago that a television show was cancelled because executives didn't believe they could sell action figures to girls. Now, DC's Super Hero Girls have successfully pulled off something those execs never would've thought possible:

Let's not kid ourselves. As much as Batman has been used for merchandising, it's always been that the toys were based off the character. With BATMAN UNLIMITED, it's clearly a case of the story being designed to foster a base for the merchandising. It's an advertisement wrapped in entertainment.

The plot: Mr. Freeze (ODED FEHR) is providing asylum to Penguin (DANA SNYDER) at his arctic retreat. But drilling in the region prompts Freeze to respond by siccing a giant monster of his own creation on the crew.

That Freeze can do this gives Penguin an idea, and he encourages Freeze to return to Gotham City and turn it into an icy wasteland for himself, while creating an impossible enemy for Batman. But first they must break out some Arkham inmates (which do not include The Joker, although he gets two cameos voiced by Troy Baker).

Santa Monica, Calif. - June 1, 2016 - Since the launch of Skylanders®, kids around the world have sent Toys For Bob, the pioneers of the toys-to-life category, hand-drawn Skylanders with one special request - please bring my Skylander to life.This October, Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) will make that wish a reality.

Featuring Luke, Slave Oola and the Rancor from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, soon you'll be able to adorn your shelf with a Rancor, its snack and the one that got away.

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From Diamond Comic Distributor's Inc:

Recreate the iconic Rancor battles in Jabba’s Palace from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi with the figure pack, featuring a 6” supersized Rancor POP! and two 3 ¾” vinyl figures of Oola, Jabba the Hutt’s Twi’lek slave dancer, and Luke Skywalker wearing his black Jedi costume and wielding a bone.

The Rancor monster was a creature that lived beneath Jabba's palace. For punishment (or just pure entertainment) the notorious gangster would occasionally send it a snack through a trap door in the floor.

By this point, your house and emails have already been bombarded with Super Spectacular Toy Catalogs, Door-Buster Sales Schedules, Black Friday Secret Deals and Cyber Monday Email Tips for you to get the most out of your holiday shopping. And you've probably already noticed that the toy market has already been defined as to which toys are the ones you have to go get.

Lost in the miasma of metamorphing robots and not-quite-for-real pets is one of the simplest yet most enduring type of toy: the stuffed animal. But for a market that's been super-saturated with everything from the zoological to the crytpozoological to even the microbial, it takes something unique if a plush is going pique a child's interest.